Magic fight
by KageNoYoko
Summary: Something is obviously wrong as Marisa Kirisame sits there, drinking tea at the Hakurei shrine, and Reimu will do everything in her power to get it out of her friend, even if it requires a little help from a baka. contains implied MariAli, and purring Cirneko. Rated T for swearing.


Her heard was thrown back as she downed another large mouthful of tea from the cup she had been supplied with by her friend, while trying to ignore the pointed look the shrine maiden was shooting her.

Reimu could tell that something was wrong with her best friend of many years, she did not often show up at the shrine, simply asking for tea, and she definitely did not just sit there quietly, the girl was always a bundle of uncontrollable energy, picking fights left and right, and then going home to nurse her wounds with a goofy grin on her face.

It had been like that for as long as they'd known each other, and this sudden change in the norm had Reimu off-balance.

all of her attempts to weasel whatever was bothering the girl out of her was met with a surprisingly sturdy wall, as Marisa replied with a clipped "I'm fine," before returning her undivided attention to her tea, and letting the silence fall back over the shrine's courtyard.

Now Reimu was simply sitting there along with the blonde girl, biting her lip, and trying to think of another way to get her to open up to her. This new Marisa was scaring her, and despite the fact she'd be the first to admit that her friend sometimes not knowing when to quit bothered her, it was also a breath of fresh air to have such a free-spirited person in the land of fantasy.

So here the pair sat, drinking tea quietly as Reimu wracked her mind, trying to think of anything, any way, to figure out what had her friend so out of sorts that she wasn't acting like her usual, rambunctious self.

'It couldn't be because Mima's gone off to Makai,' Reimu began to go down the list of possibilities, 'That old Hag has been coming and going from Gensokyo ever since she dropped Marisa as her apprentice, and that did little to deter the girl's spirits for more than five minutes before she was once again out there, demanding fights from everyone she passed.'

'I doubt it's because of Patchoulli, despite that girl's frail health, the two still play Danmaku almost every week, and she's become far more lenient on Marisa for her "borrowing" recently.'

'Could it be because of Flandre?' Reimu thought with horror, 'No, she went to the mansion just yesterday to play with that little vampire, and when she came over afterwards and we drank for a while she still seemed as high in spirit as ever.'

'Maybe it's because of Alice?' Reimu thought, 'those two are always fighting, and not just with Danmaku. They could have had another of their legendary arguments, and this is just the fallout of that.'

Looking over at her friend, Reimu did notice the way the girl's shoulders were slumped, and the dull glow in her honey-colored eyes.

deciding to attempt to breach the topic, Reimu cleared her throat to begin, but was unfortunately interrupted before she could even begin to ask her friend about anything.

Pichuu!

Marisa looked back over her shoulder, blinking in surprise, as she saw her best friend laid out over the Tatami mats, with a certain ice fairy on top of her, both dizzied by the head-on collision they just suffered from.

Reimu was the first to regain her sense, and quickly grabbed the child-like ice fairy by the back of he dress, and lifted her up, so they could be eye to eye when she began to rant at the stupid girl.

a pair of familiar, mischievous shining blue eyes greeted the shrine maiden's brown, and the blue-haired girl gave a weak laugh as she realized the trouble she had probably just gotten herself into.

"Cirno." Reimu hissed out in a clipped tone, "How many times have I told you to slow down when you're flying up the stairs, and how many times have we ended up like this because you forget to heed my warnings?"

"Err...(9)?" The ice fairy replied weakly, and found herself dropped unceremoniously to the floor. Almost thinking herself safe, the girl cried out when the shrine maiden smacked her over the head.

"Cute Cirno," Reimu chuckled dryly, "Now, what had you coming up here in such a rush that you couldn't heed my previous warnings...again I might add?" The shrine maiden continued.

A spark of realization seemed to ignite in the ice fairy's eyes at the mention of her quest, making Reimu sigh in the back of her mind, as she had a feeling this would be simply another wild goose chase that the girl didn't realize.

"Yesterday, in the forest, there were tons of bright lights!" "Danmaku Cirno, I thought you were used to that by now," "No, this time there was a lot of shouting, and the people sounded really angry at each other, and then there was a big beam, and a cry, and then the forest went really, really quiet!"

'Shouting and Danmaku?" Reimu thought, 'I mean, there is a certain edge to every game, but usually the fights are at least respectful, but from how this baka is putting it, sounds lie this was more of a blood fight.'

"Do you have any idea who it was fighting Cirno?" Reimu tried to ask, losing the angry edge to her voice and trying to keep calm with the smaller girl, but groaned when she received a negative response.

'I wasn't going anywhere near that fight, that's usually how us fairies end up blown up, and regenerating isn't nearly as fun as you might expect," The girl said in a surprising show of sense, "I do think I heard something though, just before the big beam...which looked kinda familiar too."

"Oh, what do you think it was?" Reimu tried to ask casually, and had to bite back a smile when she saw how hard the little fairy was trying to remember, her face scrunched up in concentration.

"It was...err..."

Unfortunately Marisa seemed to choose that moment to remind the pair that she was also at the shrine, and covered the ice fairies mouth, a panicked look passing across her face as she met Reimu's eyes with her own bright yellow ones, "I'm sure it's not all that important, and besides, it's Cirno, she's probably just leading you on again."

Reimu had to admit under any other circumstances Marisa might have had a point. Unfortunately for the witch, her sudden interest in the conversation, in addition to how quick she was to silence the ice fairy only worked against her, and now Reimu had somewhat of an idea just who might have been the cause of the battle the younger girl had seen the previous day.

"Marisa, is this why you're so depressed?" "I have no idea what you're talking about." "Did you and Alice get into another fight?"

Reimu knew she had it when the black-white magician pulled away from the ice fairy and averted her eyes from the pair of girls. Cirno just sat there, blinking innocently, obviously not connecting the dots in her head, but Reimu couldn't fault her for it, fairies were innocent (and kind of stupid) by nature.

Reaching up and patting the blue-haired girl on the head in what she hoped was a comforting gesture, she was amused to hear Cirno begin to make a sound akin to a purr, which gave Reimu a chance to focus her full attention on her best friend, who had gone quiet once again.

"Marisa, tell me what happened. We both know that this needs to be reported so that it can be resolved quickly, before Alice starts an incident or something," Reimu explained to the other girl.

Okay, she may have been exaggerating, but both knew incidents had started for much more ridiculous reasons, and if the opportunity to nip this one in the bud presented itself, she would take it, even if it meant getting herself involved in someone else's problems.

Marisa further turned away from the pair, making Reimu groan. Of course her friend was going to be difficult here.

Cirno seemed to snap back to attention suddenly, her petting completely forgotten as she shouted out loud, "MASTER SPAAAARK!"

Shrine maiden and witch both jumped in surprise at the sudden announcement, and the birds took off from their perches in the nearby trees.

Cirno was grinning again, which meant that she was probably proud of herself for remembering the answer to the question Reimu had asked her almost five minutes ago now, but Reimu once again found herself unable to get mad, since this closed the question on who had been fighting.

"Marisa, tell me what happened now," Reimu said firmly, and it seemed like the black-white was considering her options, while Cirno looked on from the sidelines, still grinning obliviously to the pair.

When Reimu saw her friend going for her apron pouch, where she knew she kept her spell cards, she knew that she had her, and with honed reflexes, tossed a few paper talisman at the witch.

Marisa squawked indignantly as the talisman did their work, sealing her in place and keeping her from accessing her spell cards, the only part of her body she could move now was her mouth, and hopefully that mouth would soon be giving her the answers she needed.

"Now Marisa," Reimu demanded, but The blonde girl simply turned her head away like a spoilt child, making the shrine maiden growl.

"Ooh, Ooh, pick me!" Cirno suddenly piped up again, regaining Reimu's attention, and giving the black-white a chance to catch her breath. Turning to regard the Ice fairy, Reimu pointed at the girl in the sign for her to go on.

"I didn't get close enough to see who was fighting, but I was able to hear a lot of the shouting going on, since they were being so loud," The girl admitted, "I think they were talking about some kind of anniversary that one of them forgot."

Reimu blinked a few times in surprise, and then began to consider the ice fairy's input, "What kind of anniversary could you two have that would make you try to kill each other with non-lethal Danmaku while shouting loud enough that Cirno could hear it?" Reimu asked.

Marisa looked embarrassed to admit it, but thankfully she finally opened up to her friend, "The anniversary of us becoming friends. It...kind of became a thing after we met her during the spring snow incident."

"Seriously, that's what you were fighting about? and let me guess, you forgot about it, and Alice took it harshly, because she can get so worked up over these things, and they mean a lot to her."

"Yeah, sort of."

"And then you got indignant about her attitude, and brushed off that anniversary as no big deal."

"About right."

"She then started yelling at you for being such a pig-head sometimes," "hey!" "and you didn't want to take that, so you began to Danmaku, while continuing to shout at each other."

"Yes."

Reimu turned away from the immobilized witch, and began to pat the blue-haired girl's hair again, receiving the intended purring from her, and regarded the witch, "Well of course you're going to have to go and apologize to Alice now, and maybe even take her a present to try and make sure she won't simply blow you up on approach."

"What! hey, it's not my fault that she takes everything so seriously!" Marisa cried indignantly, "I bet it's because of Shinki that she's so serious all the time."

"Have you met Shinki? a more laid back and perky Goddess I have never had the misfortune of knowing," Reimu replied, "Hell, even Suwako and Kanako are less eccentric than she is."

"I refuse, Alice should just learn to be less touchy about these things," Marisa stated.

"Oh no, you are not getting out of this one Marisa, I don't want to have to deal with a pissed off Alice, let alone Shinki if she gets involved, which you know she will, considering how overprotective she is of her dear adopted daughter," Reimu reminded the girl, causing Marisa's eyes to widen like a deer-in-the-headlights.

"No, no way, no how! I am not getting in the line of fire of an overprotective goddess!" Marisa continued to refuse, even though she knew she really didn't have a choice at this point.

"Well the only other choice is banishment to a different universe, and even then, I'm sure that Shinki will track you down if she hears about this," Reimu stated, "Face it Marisa, no matter how many years we've been friends, I have to put Gensokyo's needs first, and it does not need a goddess of creation raining down destruction on a warpath for one person."

"Hah, as if, lady Mima will help me, she fought Shinki, just like we did all those years ago," Marisa stated confidently, though Reimu thought she could hear a slight waver in her tone.

"As you may recall Marisa, we all, even Mima, only fought Shinki to a standstill, and even then she was only using a fraction of her full power because she was concerned about destroying her own realm in the process. If she was actually gunning for you, and came into Gensokyo, she would have no qualms about destroying everything in her path, and not even Yukari could probably stop her."

The way Marisa's face paled at that realization made Reimu sigh in relief that maybe she had finally gotten through to the stubborn witch.

"The answer is still no," Marisa stated.

"Okay that's it, Yukari!" Reimu cried, making the oblivious Cirno jump.

A gap tore open beside the shrine maiden, and a familiar white mob cap popped out, followed by long golden hair, and a familiar all-knowing face.

"Yes my dear shrine maiden?" The gap Youkai purred, resting on the edge of her gap like a counter.

"I knew you were listening in the whole time," Reimu muttered gruffly, "anyways, could you send this idiot over to Alice's so that they can make up, and avoid bringing Shinki's wrath down on us all."

"Consider it done my dear," Yukari stated, and a gap opened beneath the frozen witch, making her release a strangled cry as she disappeared from view.

Cirno looked at the place where the black-white had been a moment before, then turned to face Reimu in confusion, "So what did you two do to make sure that Alice will forgive her?"

"Oh nothing much, just a bit of "tough love" the gap Youkai admitted, while Reimu winced.

The three thought that they heard a shout of "Damnit Yukari!" in the distance, but brushed it off as just the wind. Reimu turned to face Cirno, knowing that Yukari would just do as she pleased, "Want to come in for some mandarins?"

Cirno's face lit up at the offer, and she cheered as she followed Reimu into the shrine, Yukari trailing along behind the pair, face hidden behind her fan.

And Gensokyo was once again saved from the wrath of an all-powerful being. At least until team (9) picked a fight with Yuuka and destroyed her sunflowers.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

**A short Omake will follow soon to explain Marisa's fate. And yes, purring Cirno is adorable.**


End file.
